In a recent survey, women ranked the Internet as more essential than sex.

That fact is not surprising in light of the rest of the survey's findings, which show women are increasingly tech-savvy, catching up with, and often surpassing, men in their digital dependency.

According to a poll by Women at NBCU, a media consortium geared at promoting marketing to women, 75% of women disagree with the statement "men are more comfortable with tech than women."

What's more, women have more friends on social networks than men, check their social networking profiles more times per day and spend at least 3.3 hours online per day for non-work activities.

Only 46% of men own a smartphone, compared to 54% of women. A whopping 75% of women own a gaming app, compared to 67% of men. Even the video game console Nintendo Wii was more popular amongst women, with 44% owning one compared to 41% of men.

"Three-quarters of the female population is online and their increasingly passionate and widespread consumption of digital is shaping this ever-evolving space," said Melissa Lavigne-Delville, vice-president of trends and strategic insights at NBC Universal's Integrated Media, in a press release.

"As this growing number of digitally-dependent women alters the landscape in unexpected ways, marketers need to react in real-time -- super-serving her with highly curated and relevant content, products and information."

When the researchers asked men and women to name three things they could not live without for one month, both genders agreed they needed the Internet and sleep.